Adult Nurse Practitioner

An adult nurse practitioner is an upper level nurse that provides care and assistance for disabled, injured, and ill adults. Adult nurse practitioners often handle many of the same day to day tasks that adult doctors take on, but they do not go through quite as much training to get there. If you want to strictly work with adults during your time as a nurse practitioner, this is certainly a career for you to keep in mind. You will be able to deal with adults of all ages and give them the care they need to continue with their lives. The information below provides an overview of what you might do as an adult nurse practitioner, just so you can see the skills and duties involved with this career.

Adult Nurse Practitioner Job Duties

The job duties of an adult nurse practitioner are slightly unpredictable, just because this is a complex career. Every patient will bring on new work for you to do, so you will not know what is going to happen in a day until it begins. Possible job responsibilities you may have in adult nursing include:

Monitoring changes in a patient’s medical condition

Maintaining reports about a patient’s progress

Teaching patients how to treat themselves so they can get better

Prescribing medications to help patients feel better

Delegating tasks to other nurses to improve patient care

There are many other tasks you may come across in your career as an adult nurse practitioner, but you will learn about most of those in your training for this profession. Just know that you will have a lot of responsibilities to care for in the future if you choose to work in this field.

Adult Nurse Practitioner Salary Levels

Your adult nurse practitioner salary may not be the same as someone else’s, depending on your work experience, location, and employer type. There are tons of different factors that will determine how much money you earn, but all of these factors should lead you to a healthy salary no matter what. Here is a look at some of the salary levels you may experience in the future:

Salary by Years of Experience

Less than 1 year: $73,497 per year

1-4 years: $80,206 per year

5-9 years: $81,333 per year

10-19 years: $87,089 per year

20 years or more: $89,995 per year

Salary by Specialty

Medicine or Surgery: $81,855 per year

Acute Care: $85,604 per year

Geriatrics: $75,479 per year

Family Practice: $72,822 per year

Intensive Care Unit: $94,337 per year

Gynecology: $68,625 per year

Internal Medicine: $76,000 per year

Orthopedics: $77,419 per year

Operating Room: $71,500 per year

Emergency Room: $69,542 per year

Salary by Employer Type

Hospital: $88,923 per year

Private Practice: $78,129 per year

Company: $86,897 per year

Non-Profit Organization: $75,378 per year

College or University: $61,104 per year

Other Organization: $86,467 per year

State and Local Government: $77,292 per year

As the information above suggests, there is a lot of money to be made in as an adult nurse practitioner. This is a specialized field of nursing that comes with immense responsibilities and extensive job training. As a result of all of that, employers pay adult nurses good money to use their services. If you already want to be a part of this career, the salaries above should secure that idea in your mind because it is in fact a good decision. You can make good money right from the start of your career, and then you can use that money to fuel your passion for the medical field.

How to Become an Adult Nurse Practitioner

To become an adult nurse practitioner, you need to go through a full master’s degree program at a college or university. You can complete your graduate level training while you work as an RN, and that will give you a chance to enter your career right when you graduate. You will have to take a few certification exams for your state before you can begin work in this career, but most students pass these with ease because of the training they received in college. You should have no trouble getting through whatever it takes to become an adult nurse practitioner.